Got the free demo. Make sure you give a good amount of time for downloading - especially the "updates" which take far longer to downgrade than the actual program!

I'm no LFS expert - a few hours/week for the last month or so. I'm really no iRacing expert - about 45 minutes last night at Limerock and Laguna Seca mostly in the Solstice with a breif stint in the radical. Initial impressions:

Driving - iRacing seems to give a better feel for the car. You can really feel when the rear end starts to kick out and correct accordingly. It's much more progressive. Maybe a bit too progressive? That said, when you get to a certain point, it appears to be uncorrectable - again, limited experience so far. I give it credit for a better seat of the pants feel. Real brakes - no adjusting down brake pressure and stomping on the brakes.

Garage - I give them credit here. No unlimited setup options on the Solstice as it should be. How many people are actually changing gear ratios on their XFG equivelants IRL? Maybe 2 or 3? The Radical has more options but still limited compared to LFS.

Graphics - more detailed but fake feeling. Particularly the large dirt embankments. Gives me the feeling of old games where everything goes blank if you step outside of the proper enviornment. Like LFS better in this department.

Safety system - I'll have to try the races, but my experience in practice (which tells you about violations but doesn't actually charge you) seems overdone. This is a game - yes, a game. I don't care that Dale Jr. plays - seemingly a lot!. Real racing is real. In a game, your lacking many sensory inputs you might have in real life. Hence, a little bump here and there and a couple of wheels off the track happen more than they would in real life. Of course lack of consequences has something to do with this, but I have a feeling there system is pushing things a bit far. T1 can be annoying in LFS, but I find most racing in the XFG on random servers is decent enough.

Overall, I'm very interested but weary of paying so much once the demo is over. I like the idea of having a whole team devoted to constant improvement. I wonder how real that "idea" is. As an LFS newbie, I can care less about the new VW. Still, the long dealy in getting out just one car sort of shows that this isn't someone's top priority. Not dissing LFS, I think it's great.

Yes - that's the funny thing. The turbo is much more controllable. I realize it's supposed to have better tires but still!

[quote=gezmoor;1074243]For example comparing the XRG (non turbo) with the Pontiac Solstice is very revealing. Whereas the XRG handles like a boat and the rear end is all over the place unless you're very careful with the throttle, (with pretty much any set up I've ever tried), the Solstice is far more composed and handles far better with a far more progressive rear end despite being 500lbs heavier and having nearly 40bhp more.quote]

I've only been at LFS for about a month, but this is one of my huge gripes. I've generally focussed on the XFG, XRG, XRG turbo and a smattering of other cars. I find the XFG pretty realistic - a spongy (setup dependent), foregiving FWD car. The model for the XRG - and I've tried various setups - is completely out of control. If we're to believe that the same tires are on each car - the ones that allow the XRG to fishtail when not even pushing it - then they should be spinning like crazy on the XFG. I've owned a Boxster and an M Coupe and have never experienced oversteer like that. Granted, the experience was on the road but the XRG fishtails with such ease - not just with 10/10ths driving at the limit. I might be mistaken, but I think you can get around 1g in these cars - that infers really good road tires.

I've been reading up on some racing technique and most people claim smoother movements (braking, accelerating and turning) will result in more grip and faster times. The explanation for the physics seems to make sense.

Then I watch the fast replays. They look anything but smooth. Instant on-off braking. Instant on off-throttle. Quick and big jerks of the steering wheel. What gives?

Quote from The Moose :

Woohoo, someone else on the planet also had a 3DO!

Yup, IIRC, it was actually a good system (hardware) but they just couldn't market it to the software companies effectively resulting in a severe lack of good games. Road Rash was a lot of fun.

NFS was on the right track back then. It let you do what everyone with testosterone wants to do - drive nice cars like a madman on open roads. Physics were realistic enough for a console.

For the Forza 1 & 2 bashers, that game is the best at creating real car seat of the pants feel that I've ever played. You could almost feel the G forces. Some people say this doesn't matter but to me it's a large part of what defines "realism". Good relief after some GPL frustration.

Most people, including myself, don't really have enough experience to say what's real. A couple of track days don't count for much. That's not even close to pushing a car like a true race car driver.

Quote from madbikes :

I remember the original NFS. It actually existed in the 3DO era (One of the CD-ROM 3D consoles before Playstation 1) just not as refined like the NFS SE. Now thinking back to it, the game is actually pretty fun and realistic for that time.

I really liked NFS for the 3DO. The sense of speed was awful but the physics were decent enough for a game of that time. The cars actually felt like cars which was an achievement for console gaming at that time.